This week, the Ministry of Justice announced that from September, our Family Courts could order DNA tests in cases of disputed paternity, to speed up Family Justice and try to reduce levels of acrimony in family hearings.

The Justice Minister Simon Hughes has said this move is intended to end ‘acrimonious and embarrassing court battles’. This all sounds very good news.

Well, they already can! As ever, there is more behind the headlines. The Family Courts have always been able to determine paternity where it is disputed within family cases.

It is not just participants in well known TV talk shows who can access DNA testing services.

It has always been possible to order a DNA test, at least since the science behind DNA testing has existed. The difficulty is who will pay for a DNA test?

A DNA test tends to cost around £300 to £400 for one child.

Where the parties are fortunate to be in receipt of Legal Aid, the Legal Aid Agency will fund the costs of a DNA test.

If not, or if only one party is legally aided, the costs will have to be paid privately. That can obviously put some people off finding out.

The Minister is undoubtedly right that it is in the child’s interests to have certainty over their paternity, for all sorts of reasons, not least health and psychological reasons.

The story behind this headline, is that the costs of a DNA test will be covered, on a non-means-tested basis, to ensure that funding them does not become a bar to getting to the truth of a child’s paternity.

Between £500,000 and £1,000,000 has been agreed from CAFCASS’s budget to fund these tests.

The thinking behind this change appears to be to ensure this discreet, but important issue is resolved more quickly, and in the children’s best interests.

Where it is being raised by a parent in cases involving where a child lives or how long they spend with the other parent, it can be resolved without delays in those proceedings.

It should also assist to speed up disputes involving family finances and has come about as a result of a pilot scheme which took place in Taunton and Bristol.

Mr Hughes said: “I am determined all cases involving children should be resolved quickly and wherever possible outside court.

“However, when they do come to court they should be resolved so that children don’t suffer.”

It must be in our children’s best interests to speed up these processes, and also to reduce the levels of conflict between their parents.

Alternative methods to resolving family disputes, such as family mediation, arbitration, and collaborative legal practice are gaining in popularity.

We are fortunate that in Oxfordshire we have the Resolution Family Matters scheme, that can assist free of charge. Visit resolution.org.uk/fmoxford for more details.